Tort

Negligence - provision of scaffolding by main site contractor - no liability for injuries to sub-contractor's employeeMakepeace v Evans Brothers (Reading) (a firm) and another: CA (Nourse and Mantell LJJ and Holman J): 23 May 2000

The claimant, a painter and decorator, was employed by the first defendant to work at a building site.

The first defendant had been engaged by the second defendants, the main site contractors.

The claimant sustained injury while working on a tower scaffold which toppled over.

The second defendants had provided the scaffold and had told the claimant, without enquiring whether he knew how to erect or use it, that he could borrow it for doing outside paintwork.

The judge held the first defendant liable for damages for personal injuries but dismissed the claimant's action against the second defendants for breaches of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 and common law negligence.

The claimant, doubting the first defendant's ability to pay the damages, appealed.David Foskett QC and David Evans (instructed by Field Seymour Parkes, Reading) for the claimant.

Dermod O'Brien QC and Stephen Archer (instructed by Kennedys) for the second defendants.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that circumstances could exist when a main contractor owed a duty of care to the employees of others who came upon the premises, distinct from any duty relating to the state of the premises; but that in the light of the judge's finding that the scaffold, although inherently dangerous, was an ordinary piece of equipment of a kind frequently used on sites by painters the second defendants did not owe a duty of care to the claimant to ensure that he knew how to use it safely and was aware of the inherent dangers in its incorrect use.